stuff from OJR

• Steven Smith departs and the question arises: Who should lead newspapers' online transformation?: By David Westphal: Do newspaper editors have a special obligation to stay in their depleted newsrooms and continue the fight, even as staff cuts threaten to shrink legacy news-gathering operations? Or will newspapers and their Web sites be better served by new leadership that's less wedded to the past and more inclined to see the future as hopeful? This was the topic of a lively conversation among some journalism faculty last week at USC Annenberg, following Steve A. Smith's decision to resign as editor of the Spokane Spokesman-Review. Smith's announcement (followed by the same-day exit of assistant managing editor Carla Savalli) was deeply felt here because of his pioneering involvement in digital transformation, here at the Knight Digital Media Center as well as at Spokane. But Smith told Michele McLellan last week that he could not stomach an additional, 25 percent cut to his news staff. “The journalism that’s important to me is no longer possible,” he told McLellan. There can't have been too many editors who haven't wondered the same thing, and asked themselves whether it's best for them to stay or to go.
• Newspapers need to learn that great online communities should not be dictatorships: By Robert Niles: I had a conversation yesterday with a former colleague, who, like many online journalists, is trying to steer his newspaper toward a more Web-savvy future. As we were wrapping up, he mentioned that he had to go to a meeting of his paper's "standards and practices" committee. The what? I asked. "Yeah, we have a standards and practices committee," he said. "We're supposed to figure out policies about managing user-generated content, hyperlinking and stuff like that." Why don't you just crowdsource that? I asked. He rolled his eyes, said "I know," then proceeded to detail some of the reasons why the paper's old guard had shot down his proposal to do just that. The reasons boiled down to two: 1) We don't trust outsiders to know what we ought to be doing, so 2) we're not comfortable letting "outsiders" influence decisions about internal operations. What a wasted opportunity. What better way to help readers feel part of a community with the paper than to ask those readers to help craft the community's rules?
• Reading, 'riting... and revenue? Online publishing changes the 'three Rs' for college students: By Larry Atkins: Sure, algebra, chemistry and English composition are important. But the most important basic skill and task that should be a prerequisite to graduating college is that students should create their own professional websites. In today's changing high-tech job market, students should be developing their own professional websites and blogs while they are in college and even high school. In addition to theoretical and analytical courses, colleges should teach real-world practical skills such as constructing a website. Schools should teach students that the Internet is more than a social networking tool or a way to research papers and projects. I teach Journalism at Temple University and Arcadia University. At the beginning of each semester, I'm surprised at the small number of students who have developed their own professional-style websites. Everyone is on Facebook or MySpace, but only five or so of the approximately 400 students that I've taught over the last five years had their own website, which featured their writing samples, articles, or other work. I now emphasize to all my students that developing their own professional website while in college can be an effective marketing tool and a great way to get internships, part-time jobs, full-time jobs, exposure, and extra cash.
• News websites need sharper focus, consistent design to attract audience, advertisers: By Robert Niles: A reader wrote, in response to Geneva Overholser's post relaunching OJR: "You say that the 'old business model for news is broken.' What does that mean? What part of it is broken? What part of it can we expect journalists to put in its place?" Let me take on that one today. If we back up enough, I think we'll find that core principles that power the news business remain viable in the Internet era. Advertisers continue to deliver billions of dollars to publishers. Heck, my wife and I make the bulk of our income from direct and networked ad sales on our websites, for a personal example. Other concepts can work, as well. Christopher Kimball and his crew at Cook's Illustrated have shown that paid online content and offline subscriptions can support a robust ad-free publishing company. Non-profits such as the Consumers Union remain viable online, and other non-profits, such as ProPublica, show promise. So people can, and are making a variety of concepts work, whether they be based on advertising, subscriptions and/or contributions and grant funding. So what has the Internet broken?
• Continuous Updates: Design decisions when designating breaking news: By Nora Paul and Laura Ruel: This is one in a series of reports on DiSEL (Digital Story Effects Lab) Research projects conducted in 2007 through a research grant from the University of Minnesota. First in the series was on Navigation through Slide Shows Why we did the study One of the great strengths of the web is the ability to keep news updated and to alert readers immediately to stories they need to know about. This is also one of the biggest organizational changes the web has brought to newsrooms. Shifting from daily to constant deadlines has caused a rethinking of work flow, editing, and reporting responsibilities. But questions remain about the best way to ensure that these updated or breaking news items are presented on the page for greatest visibility. Judging from the wide variety of design techniques newsrooms use to designate breaking news, there is no consensus on the best approach. In May 2007 the top 102 US newspapers' websites were analyzed to catalog the different ways "breaking" news was being displayed. We looked at labels used to indicate news was updated or new and the design techniques for differentiating "breaking" news from other news items on the homepage.
• Build your own echo chamber: By Robert Niles: How can journalists help their work stand out in a media marketplace that's become stuffed with competition from thousands of blogs, websites and social networks? Not to mention umpteen cable networks, satellite radio channels and time-sucking iPhone and Crackberry applications? The easy answer is for journalists to provide sharper, more engaging work that's, well, even louder than what we've offered our readers back when most newspapers had monopolies in their local markets. Fortunately, as the Internet slams us with new competition, it offers journalists new opportunities as well. Specifically, today I'd like to write about the opportunity the Internet provides us to build relationships with our readers that will help amplify our reporting and its influence in society. Echo chambers have gotten a bad rap from some in journalism. But partisan media echo chambers can teach responsible journalists important lessons about how to motivate readers and to use the power of repetition to rebuild a newsroom's influence in its community.
• Welcome back, to the 'new' OJR: By Geneva Overholser: First, thanks to all of OJR's long-time readers for coming back. We are grateful for your loyalty, and we hope you will join us regularly in this new quest to help journalism find a sound footing in the digital age. I am the new director of the Annenberg School of Journalism at the University of Southern California. My four decades in newspapering may have helped land me in this position, but it's my gusto for the future of information in the public interest that defines my work now. We hope — here at Annenberg, and here at OJR in its new Knight Digital Media Center home — to help figure out what it is about journalism that is most important to carry forward. And, we hope to do what we can to ensure that it does indeed GET carried forward.
• A message about OJR from USC Annenberg's School of Journalism: By Geoffrey Baum: A message from USC Annenberg Journalism School director Geneva Overholser: Thank you for your interest in OJR. The fast-moving changes in digital media are more compelling every day, and they remain an important area of focus for the USC Annenberg School for Communication. We are committed to keeping the archives of OJR available online and are exploring ways to continue the School's efforts to increase understanding about the revolutionary transformation of news and information.

stuff from CNET News.com

• Verizon officially debuts RIM BlackBerry Storm: Research In Motion and Verizon Wireless officially announce the first touch-screen BlackBerry, and CNET gets a hands-on look.
• Yahoo has high hopes for calendar makeover: The Internet pioneer will revamp its online calendar starting Wednesday. New: subscriptions, sharing, and targeted advertisements for events.
• Google launches AdSense for Games: More than a year after its $23 million purchase of AdScape Media, the search giant finally gets into the crowded in-game advertising field.
• Unisys hopes ex-Gateway chief can turn it around: Struggling IT services company has chosen Edward Coleman, a man it says has a long history of transforming troubled tech companies, to take over as CEO.
• CEA: Economy down, TV sales up: Despite widespread financial woes, sales of flat-panel TVs and game hardware should do fine during the holidays, the Consumer Electronics Association says.
• Click-to-buy links for songs, games added to YouTube: YouTube is adding links to Amazon.com and the iTunes Store from the pages of thousands of its videos, making it easier for people to buy an MP3 they hear or a video game that looks good.
• No escape from the perfect financial storm: After this perfect storm, brewed out of years of habit and taken down by mortgages for the masses, consumers and businesses will be far more conservative in their spending habits.
• Judge keeps RealDVD restraining order in place: District judge presiding over the RealDVD case says she needs to hear more testimony, and decides to keep the DVD-copying software off limits in the meantime.
• Another iPhone bug?: Security conscious 12-year-old discovers new security hole in iPhone that allows people to see incoming text messages even when the passcode lock is enabled.
• Tech stocks tumble for a second straight day: The Dow Jones industrial average takes another wild ride, marking a second consecutive day it has ended the session below 10,000.
• CNET News Daily Podcast: Subway cards now easily hackable: Protecting yourself from subway card hacks; a possible battery change for Apple's iPhone; and corporate restructuring at AMD.
• Will Beijing's sustained driving restrictions maintain clear skies?: Much has been made of Beijing's decision to keep a lighter version of its Olympics traffic restrictions, not least because whatever the city did to clean the air seemed to have worked in August.
• Firefox Geode: Web sites know where you are: The Internet is international, but increasingly local, too: Mozilla Labs' new Firefox plug-in lets Web sites know where you are.
• HP to offer printing on MySpace: MySpace members will be able to print out photos, blog entries, and other stuff from their profiles using HP technology.
• Army plans 500-megawatt solar thermal farm: A new Army energy strategy includes plans for what could become the world's largest solar thermal farm, as well as geothermal and biomass-to-fuel projects.
• Microsoft search results land inside Facebook: As part of a deal announced in July that resulted from an investment, users can now do Web searches using Microsoft's engine without leaving the social-networking site.
• Money makes open source tick: Open source is not about peace-loving developers hacking their way to freedom. It's about corporations funding development that helps them serve customers and crush competitors.
• Astronaut training awaits Esther Dyson: The tech pundit and investor is girding for six months of training at Russia's Star City, as an understudy to International Space Station-bound Charles Simonyi.
• Scale and zoom around presentations with ZuiPrezi: ZuiPrezi is a next-generation online presentation tool that lets you zoom and fly around online presentations. It's not out yet, but it sure looks neat.
• Search-ad revenues grow amid market malaise : Growth in the market is apparent through the third quarter, despite the financial meltdown, according to an industry report and a Wall Street analyst.
• Apple's 'Brick' manufacturing rumors--not so revolutionary?:

  Featured links from the CNET Blog Network

  Apple's "Brick" manufacturing rumors--not so revolutionary?--Rumors are buzzing that Apple has been working on a manufacturing process involving lasers and waterjets and solid blocks of aluminum for the upcoming MacBooks.

  AMD to spin off manufacturing--Company is expected to announce a long-expected restructuring of its manufacturing operations.

  The hole in Cisco's collaboration story--If Cisco is gunning for Microsoft they need more ammo--in the form of content.

  Mozilla: The right attitude for the Web's gatekeeper--Mozilla has a dream of winning, but not in the traditional free-market methodology.

stuff from mediacenter's morph

stuff from CyberJournalist.net

• Tina Brown launches Daily Beast: Tina Brown has launched her new website, The Daily Beast, a news aggregator that’s about 30 percent original content. … [visit site to read more]

  

  
  
• Switching from print to online: Poynter’s “Ask the Recruiter” has a question from someone who just made the switch from print to online and is wondering how best to showcase her work to potential future employers. Detroit Free Press recruiter Joe Grimm’s advice: digitally archived copies and printouts are OK, and collect data on how your decisions have helped increase [...]

  

  
  
• Why video goes viral: Interesting look at why Microsoft’s Gates/Seinfeld went viral and ‘I’m a PC’ ads didn’t. … [visit site to read more]

  

  
  
• Congress passes Net radio bill: AP reports that Congress has passed a bill that’s aimed at keeping Internet radio alive. … [visit site to read more]

  

  
  
• Video killed the radio star?: Perhaps, but it’s making big online stars of print reporters like Dana Milbank. … [visit site to read more]

  

  
  
• Twitter Election2008 page: Twitter is filtering hundreds of Twitter updates per minute to create a new source for gathering public opinion about the election and a new way for Twitterers to share … [visit site to read more]

  

  
  
• DailyMe posts VP debate tweets: DailyMe is running a live feed of twitter posts about the VP debate … [visit site to read more]

  

  
  
• Campaign Songs: Past and Present: From WSJ.com: Can you match the song with the candidate who used … [visit site to read more]

  

  
  
• VP debate bingo: Newsweek.com is offering readers a downloadable “Fight Night Bingo” game. … [visit site to read more]

  

  
  
• 10 Emerging Technologies from ONA: Poynter’s Ellyn Angelotti has a great summary of 10 news innovations she discovered at the Online News Association … [visit site to read more]

  

  
  

stuff from

stuff from Hypergene MediaBlog

• Introducing Footnote Pages: It's live. Try it.
• We're launching something at TechCrunch 50 today: Around 2:15 Pacific Time, CEO Russ Wilding, will be on the TechCrunch 50 stage to launch our latest project. Anyone will be able to kick the tires of this new thing immediately after the talk. Watch live coverage: